Posts By Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta is a poet, editor, and web publisher from the Appalachian mountains of central Pennsylvania.

Where They Feed Their Children to Kings by John Gallaher

A poem originally published in the Colorado Review, and reprinted in Verse Daily. John Gallaher blogs at Nothing to Say & Saying It (love that title!).

Conatus by Temujin Doran

Another work of found-text genius by Temujin Doran which, while not explicitly a videopoem or filmpoem, illustrates the crucial importance of juxtaposition in extending the meaning well beyond the text.

From their quiet home in the Père Lachaise Cemetery; Frank, Malcom, George, Mary, Peggy and Jim discuss a very enjoyable weekend. This is a short film based on an archival sound recording taken from the 1959 Linguaphone series ‘English Intonation Reader’

Same-Day Return by Robert Peake

A new film-poem by Robert Peake and Valerie Kampmeier. “We live near the end of the Northern Line, and our evenings are pleasantly haunted by the sound of the train,” Robert notes in a blog post (which also includes the text).

Visiting the Dunbrody Famine Ship by Elizabeth Rimmer

This is Alastair Cook’s 17th filmpoem, and bears the title of the collection of poetry whence the poem comes: Wherever We Live Now, by British poet Elizabeth Rimmer. Alastair writes,

This film came while I was concentrating on two other films, which will be part of my solo film, photography and glass show How the Land Lies in Edinburgh this spring.

This is also a farewell to Kodak, of sorts, as there’ll never really be a goodbye embrace- entirely made from Kodachrome Super8, wildly out of date. And a homage to my solace, Portobello.

Thanks to Erstlaub for the sound design, a drone star.

When at a Certain Party in NYC by Erin Belieu

Motionpoems’ latest animation. (See the comments to that post for a quote on the process by animator Amy Schmitt, as well as the poet’s reaction to the finished piece.) This is another of the films produced in collaboration with Best American Poetry 2011.

[meine heimat] by Ulrike Almut Sandig

The 2012 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival has introduced a new contest, inviting filmmakers to

make a film of the poem [meine heimat] by Ulrike Almut Sandig. The directors of the three best films will be invited to come to Berlin to meet the poet and have the opportunity of presenting their films and talking about them.

This is Swoon‘s entry. Ulrike Almut Sandig’s webpage is here, and there’s a bio in English at the online journal No Man’s Land.

New Year Philosophy #5 by Inua Ellams

Art direction and animation by Jonathan Mckee for Smile for London. Inua Ellams is a word and graphic artist from Nigeria.

Flames by Billy Collins

A new film by Brandon Dziokonski blends animation with recycled footage from old Smokey the Bear public service anouncements.

Videopoems sought for the Shanghai Tunnels Project

A new international poetry festival is in the works. Entries are due by February 25.

With screening events to be held during March 2012 in both Portland, Oregon and Shanghai, China, this festival will celebrate the art of video poetry—the mix of verse and video into a creative form all its own.

Clikc through for the details and guidelines.

Lenora de Barros: the challenge of working with sound in a society of images

Lenora de Barros is a genre-crosser, a concrete poet and visual artist also working in film and audio. I was impressed that someone with such a strong background in the visual aspect of poetry would become so seduced by sound.

I searched for an example of her work on YouTube and found Encorpa (Embodies), a video made for an exhibition called The Overexited Body — Art and Sports. Lenora de Barros is credited with the sound on this piece along with Cid Campos. Brazilian filmmaker Grima Grimaldi directs.

Mile End Pugatorio by Martin Doyle

Poet Martin Doyle and filmmaker Guy Sherwin collaborated on this 1991 film-poem, produced (so the credits inform us) for the Arts Council of Great Britain and BBC 2’s The Late Show, and uploaded to YouTube for Luxonline, “the single most extensive publicly available resource devoted to British film and video artists.”

Delikatnie mnie odepchnąłeś całą… (You gently pushed all of me away…) by Bozena Urszula Malinowska

http://vimeo.com/35127990

You said…
—I do not want you
And you said
—leave
You said quietly
—through the fog
and so (it seemed) calmly
timidly
gently pushed all of me
away…

Another video by Marcin Konrad Malinowski for a poem by his deceased mother, part of his Dwa Nieba (“Two Heavens”) project:

It’s mostly inspired by the work of Bozena Urszula Malinowska, my mother, who left a substantial collection of poems. Whether or not it strengthens them, interpretation gives them new meaning because in poetry, we find ourselves. Videopoetry is a way to share these poems with the world, and also gives me the opportunity to respond to them.

(Rendered with the help of Google Translate)

I like the extreme minimalism in this one.